I saw a man's life saved today [View all]

[KansDem]

This morning I stopped by a local restaurant for my usual breakfast. I've been going to this place for over 20 years now. The servers know me as many of them have worked there for as long as I can remember. It must be a pretty good place to work.

I sat down and ordered my usual breakfast burrito. It comes with a side of salsa. It used to come in a bowl but a few years ago the owner, in an attempt to save on costs, had the servers start bringing the salsa in a small, plastic cup. The servers know how much I like a lot of salsa with my breakfast burrito so they continued to bring me the salsa in a bowl (much larger than the cup). I smother my breakfast burrito with the salsa and drench it with Cholula and Tabasco (I'm a spicy kind-of-guy). I tip an extra dollar for this personalized attention, bringing the tip up to roughly 30% (the meal is around $11). I turned 60 in January and qualify for the restaurant's “senior discount.” It saves me a dollar which I add to my standard tip. Now, a buck isn't going to make or break me and it shows the server how much I appreciate the bowl of salsa.

I usually eat at this restaurant once or twice a month. I work one Saturday a month and will usually stop in on that day to treat myself to a breakfast burrito on my into work..

This morning, a gentleman seated at the table next to me got up to leave. He paid his bill, then, as he was walking out, was struck with an illness. I didn't see all that happened but saw that he was sitting on the bench next to the cashier's counter with several of the servers, including my server, helping him. They appeared to be holding him up as he would have fallen to the floor if they weren't there assisting him. The cashier was on the phone calling 911. The servers relayed symptoms to the cashier who passed them on to the 911 dispatcher. I heard them call out “difficulty breathing,” “nauseous,” “minor convulsions” and “blackout.” The cashier then relayed back instructions from the dispatcher which the servers used to assist the man. This line was kept open until the paramedics arrived.

These were restaurant workers. You know? “Restaurant workers?” Those workers who make sub-minimum wage and rely on tips to live on?

The paramedics arrived in just a couple of minutes with their stretcher, oxygen, and emergency medical cases and began tending to the man. The servers then went back to work tending to their customers.

When I left the paramedics were still there while the firetruck waited outside.

I thought a lot about what I had just seen. Even the ill-timed traffic lights characteristic of downtown Kansas City didn't bother me this morning. As I sat at red lights waiting, I thought of what might have happened if the restaurant workers hadn't acted quickly and rationally.

It put things into perspective. In the wake of recent events with crazy white guys killing black teens, or a couple dozen children in India dying from poison in their free school lunches, or 20 American first-graders gunned down by a maniac only to be followed a couple of months later with a “Glorification of the Gun” celebration, or the ongoing voter suppression efforts, or the constant attack on women, immigrants, the sickly, poor, elderly, workers, and students, or the seemingly never-ending insane and just plain stupid remarks coming out of our politicians' mouths, it put things into perspective. It shows that human empathy is indeed strong and unyielding. It showed that humanity trumps all other human characteristics.

I left my server a $20 tip. I figured it's the least I could do. A man's life was saved.